Japan Airlines carried ¥2.3 trillion in debt into the largest postwar bankruptcy

Japan Airlines was once the world's largest airline by revenue, a semi-governmental carrier that had grown through decades of route expansion with little regard for profitability. By the late 2000s it carried 47,000 employees, operated routes that had not turned a profit in years, and owed ¥2.3 trillion ($25 billion) — the largest non-financial corporate debt in Japan since the war. The 2008 financial crisis turned chronic deficits into an existential cash crunch.

On 19 January 2010, JAL filed for bankruptcy protection under Japan's Corporate Rehabilitation Law. The plan wiped existing shareholders out entirely — capital was cut to zero — and imposed ¥730 billion in debt waivers alongside a ¥300 billion government-backed cash injection. JAL cut 19,133 jobs, suspended 14 domestic and 4 international routes, and retired its last Boeing 747 after 41 years of service. Shares were delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on 20 February 2010.

At the government's urging, Kazuo Inamori — the 78-year-old founder of Kyocera and KDDI — came out of retirement to chair the restructuring. He introduced Kyocera's 'amoeba' unit-accounting system, giving each department its own profit-and-loss view. JAL emerged from court supervision in March 2011, posted ¥188.4 billion in operating profit to become the world's most profitable airline, and re-listed on the TSE on 19 September 2012 — two years and eight months after the largest bankruptcy in Japanese corporate history.